Conte Asks For Patience With Chelsea

Antonio Conte has asked for patience with Chelsea, after he led them to the Premier League title last season.

Chelsea welcome Manchester United on Sunday evening, after a humbling 3-0 defeat to Roma and Conte was criticized for mistakes made.

The Italian manager says winning the title with Chelsea last season, has raised the expectations of the club and has asked for patience.

“It’s not simple to repeat and then to win [the title]. Above all here, above all in this league. It’s not simple,” Conte said. “You have to try to do this. You have to consider the real situation that you stay now. I said to you a lot of time that now we are trying to build something important. Now we are trying to put the fundamentals for this club.

“Don’t forget that in the last four, five years we lost a lot of important players for Chelsea: Drogba, Petr Cech, Lampard, Terry, Ivanovic, Mikel, Ashley Cole. I’m talking about players that wrote history in this club, because they played for many years and they played Champions League games, semi-finals, finals.

“Now we are restarting to build something important, to try to put the club again to be able to face this type of situation. If we think I do this (snapping fingers) and we are ready to fight. It’s not simple. Last season what happened was a miracle. It was a miracle, because we had the same players that the season before finished 10th.

“Okay our transfer market was with Batshuayi, Luiz, Kante and Alonso. If I don’t remember badly, you [the media] were the first to say Chelsea is prepared this season to become worse than the previous season. I remember the headlines. I have to say when I make mistakes, but also you have to do the same.

“We must be ready to do something special. But we must be realistic and to understand that we are building, we are creating a base. We are creating a foundation. In this season we bought five new players and we have 16 senior players.

“Honestly, I think I earned my time here with the win of last season. I earned my time. I don’t like to ask for time. I like to tell the truth. My truth is this, maybe some don’t agree with me, but I like to tell the truth. I don’t [decide that I] want to take time, for what? The situation is very clear.

“My task is to work and to put all myself for this club. Then if it’s enough, okay. It’s won’t be enough, okay the same. I will continue to live. I always like to tell the truth, first of all to my club. I think the most important thing is to try always to tell the truth.

“Sometimes it’s better a good lie than a bad truth, but in my opinion, I’m a person who always prefers to tell a bad truth than a good lie. In this way I have the respect of the people that I tell the truth to.”

“We are trying to build something important,” he continued. “It’s important to have the patience and then to have the time to do this. I understand that it’s not for all to have patience. But patience is a big quality. For example, I have not a lot of patience, honestly. But after last season, I’m proving a lot to do this.”

Antonio Conte has asked for patience with Chelsea, after he led them to the Premier League title last season.
Chelsea welcome Manchester United on Sunday evening, after a humbling 3-0 defeat to Roma and Conte was criticized for mistakes made.
The Italian manager says winning the title with Chelsea last season,...